Military Rollercoaster

So Mario has a couple dream jobs in the military.  One would be a Spanish instructor at the Academy in Colorado.  The second would be ROTC commander at a university.  He's begged for the Spanish instructor job and even told his commander he was willing to give up the chance for Colonel if they gave it to him.  He was denied because the military knew it would be a career ender.  So we moved to Omaha.

Now it's time to look for a new assignment.  As a Lt. Colonel, he is eligible to be  an ROTC commander. If he wants any chance at Colonel, (he's recently stated that he's glad he didn't close any doors to making Colonel, thanks to my advice) he needs a command job.  That would leave ROTC or Communications command.  He hates Comm and didn't really want to go that route.  He has dual career fields, the other being Regional Affairs Strategist.  Both career fields have to approve his next assignment.  RAS told him they wouldn't support him going ROTC because he is due to go back to RAS assignment after Omaha.  They would only release him to be Communications commander.  He prayed about it and went to the Temple and decided he would apply for Comm command if that meant he would be closer to making Colonel.  But later he was having major second thoughts.

When he saw an opportunity for RAS to send him to the academy, he decided he would give up on Colonel to have his dream job.  He really just wants to make sure he is around for the family.  It is a pivotal time for our children as Erin graduates from that assignment and the twins will be working towards Eagle scout.  He called RAS and said, "Ok, I will take the academy job."  The RAS guy told Mario that it wasn't an option.  It was a mistake on the slideshow Mario had seen previously.  I guess the assignment guy softened his heart and told Mario he would release him to be ROTC commander. Mario had been praying a lot for him to change his mind.

So now we are back on track to apply for ROTC.  The list of schools becomes available this summer. So hopefully Mario will get picked up to be a commander.  He has a good record so I think he will. We are hoping to stay in Omaha so we can lessen the hardships on our children.  But when the list comes out, we will let Erin choose her top 5 places to move if we have to move.   No guarantee they will give us anything on our wishlist though.

Mario has a lot of faith.  He has spent the last couple weeks getting his hair (two haircuts in a 8 days) and uniform in order to take a very professional picture for his ROTC application.  I honestly thought he was wasting his time on this picture because I didn't think RAS would release him to do ROTC. Obviously I need more faith.

Yale Letter

We have been getting lots of mail and emails from colleges around the country since last June when Eric took the ACT for the first time.  He did great, but he just retook it and bumped his score 2 more points.  Now we are getting letters from even more competitive colleges.

Wow! I can't believe my son's name is actually on Yale letterhead. I didn't even know that Yale recruits. But we (I say "we" because whenever Eric does well in school, I take partial credit and say "We did really well on that math test" etc, it drives him crazy so it encourages me to do it more) got this letter from them today. I can't even imagine getting accepted to Yale and I know it takes a lot more than good test scores (and a lot of money) to get in. Mario and I would choose BYU if given the choice for him anyway. From what I've been told, BYU is highly selective as well but a whole lot cheaper.  

I've hired a private tutor to help Eric achieve his goal score on the ACT.  We'll see if she is able to help. So far he's been happy with her and thinks that he will be better prepared for the next one in April.  I'm crossing my fingers.

Twins Growing Up

Mario and I took the twins out tonight since Eric was at a movie and Erin was babysitting. We asked the boys if they wanted to go to Toys R Us. They were excited to go and grabbed their wallets.

Last year they'd try to buy everything they saw when they had money. It felt like we'd spend an hour in the Lego section alone.

It was sad because tonight, they pretty much skipped the Lego section all together. They both said they aren't really interested in Legos anymore. In fact, they weren't really interested in any of the toys there. How sad, my little boys are growing up.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sharing and Pink Eye

I got my hair done this week.  I don't remember the last time I dyed my hair.  I think it was before I got married.  I have done highlights a few times (less than 5) since getting married.  But after 4 kids and each of them earning at least 50 grey hairs each, it was time to dye it.  A friend does hair at her house and so I went with her to pick up the hair dye at the beauty supply store.  While there, she told me about this great shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, hair clips and flat iron.  So I splurged a little (or a lot) and got it all.  (I actually didn't get it all.  She told me that I need a $100 blow dryer if I want to do away with the frizz.  I couldn't justify buying that this month too.)  I only bought the things I did because I am so tempted to cut my hair short again because for one, Mario wants me to and second, I don't know how to take care of long hair.  I thought maybe spending a fortune on products would do the trick.

I brought home my bag of goods and put it on the table.  Erin comes home and immediately starts emptying my bag and one by one, takes everything out and up to her room.  I don't mind sharing, but holy cow, I had just spent a lot of money on that stuff.  I told her that I would share, but the products have to stay in my bathroom because I certainly didn't want her brothers using them.  I quickly found out that Erin isn't so generous with her belongings.  Keep reading....

So, now my hair is looking good, only because my friend styled it and not me.  I'm sure there's not any amount of money I can spend to make it so I know how to style hair.   I'm just not a girly girl.  I decided to put on some eye makeup.  My eyeliner needed sharpening so I decided to try out Erin's new eyeliner that she got on sale for a dollar.

By last night, my eyes were an itchy mess.  I couldn't stand it.  I took some Benedryl and immediately went to bed.  I knew for sure that I must have gotten pink eye with my cold.  I woke up to crusty eyes and immediately called the doctor.  They got me in right away and so I had to cancel tutoring this morning.  I knew I shouldn't tutor with pink eye anyway.

Turns out, no pink eye.  It was an allergic reaction to the $1 eyeliner.  So I text Erin this morning and tell her about my eyes.  Here's a copy of our texts (ignore the first couple that were from yesterday):

Erin just makes me laugh.  Everyday, I have to retrieve about 5 things from her room or bathroom that she has taken from me.  But then I am the one with an allergic reaction from borrowing her stuff one time.  I told Mario that the eyeliner cost me $40.  He thought I meant that I paid $40 for the eyeliner. No, I lost $40 in tutoring money today because I was at the dr office and not tutoring.  He was relieved that I wouldn't spend $40 on an eyeliner for our daughter.

Cub Scout Cake

They asked each scout family to make a cake for the Blue and Gold. The theme was Knights of the Round Table. I only make 2 cakes, ugly and ice cream. But in the interest of trying to do the right thing with my boys, we attempted to make a cake we found on Pinterest.  After spending $17 on cake supplies, this is how ours turned out:

Although, not quite the same or as nice, the boys were thrilled and they thought we would win first prize. I told them that prizes don't matter, what's important is we had fun doing it together. I knew we wouldn't be taking home any great awards. We did walk away with the award for "Would Do Most Damage to My Waistline." There were lots of goofy awards like that one.

I must admit that the entire time I was making it with them, I kept repeating over and over in my head how much I hate doing crafty things like cake decorating. But I did enjoy how excited they were about actually attempting to make a themed cake. So it was all worth it. Plus they got lots of compliments on it at the banquet. I think it was definitely the most "chocolatey" cake there.

Amtrak Train to Virginia

I'm thinking about taking the kids on an Amtrak train to meet up with Mario this summer in Virginia. For some reason, the big kids aren't excited to spend 30+ hours riding a train. I think it sounds adventurous. Nate and Zach want to go. I'm thinking I need to send Eric and Erin off to boarding school so they stop interfering with our vacation plans. I have 3 trips planned for spring break and summer and they don't like any of them. But they do like the Florida trip at Christmas. They are trying to get us to agree to a cruise while we are there. Sounds like a good plan to me. Now if I could just get them on board for these other trips. The sad thing is, once the big kids leave home, our twins will be teens and they won't want to go anywhere either. But maybe we'll get revenge on the big kids by making them babysit the boys while Mario and I go away.

Baby Quilt

I sent off my last quilt to the quilter and now I'm off to buy fabric to make this baby quilt for Mario's sister who is pregnant with a baby girl. I'm so excited to make a baby quilt. I told Mario that this quilt tempts me into wanting a baby. I, of course was kidding, but he wants another one. I say no way!!!!! I will be 40 in 2 months.